Washington state courts Boeing … or oops, is it Airbus?

The top of a full-page ad placed by the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce in Wednesday’s Seattle Times.

What is the Washington Aerospace Partnership trying to tell us in that full-page ad placed in today’s Seattle Times? One unfortunate thing it tells us is that whichever marketing firm made the ad doesn’t know its airplanes.

The state has already passed $8.7 billion in tax breaks to persuade Boeing to locate production of the 777X jet here. But of course the machinists union last week rejected the Boeing contract offer that was another part the company’s demands – suddenly opening up the competition to other states.

So the Washington Aerospace Partnership – a group of leaders from business, labor and local government formed to promote the growth of aerospace in Washington state – made a straightforward pitch in the ad:

“Our state is still in the hunt for Boeing’s 777X” so legislators should pass the massive transportation package Boeing wants as yet another incentive.

Many aviation players around the region, and beyond, must have choked on their morning coffee. Alex Pietsch, director of the Governor’s Aerospace Office, who is in the United Arab Emirates for the Dubai Air Show, sent a message from the Gulf pointing out the slip to the Washington Aerospace Partnership’s Seattle office.

The ad was placed by the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, which is part of the Aerospace Partnership. “It’s an embarrassing, cringe-worthy error,” said Chamber spokeswoman Terri Hiroshima.